A serio-comic and admonitory epistle, addressed to a certain priest With a grave, solemn, and sublime epistle, addressed to certain critics. With an amatory ode to Eliza. To which is prefixed, An address to the reader, Respecting some late Conduct of the Rev. C---- B----, Curate of W----;. By Anthony Pasquin |
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 | A serio-comic and admonitory epistle, addressed to a certain priest |  |
BUT siste, gentle reader, siste; or in plain English I must beg you to stop. I am determined not to ride my Pegasus too fast the first journey. Good horse-men, you know as well as I do, always say, that your first stage should be short, that your horse, in the technical phrase, may find his legs, and may come gradually to his wind. Here then with your leave we will bate; and, like sociable travellers, talk over the next stage, and examine the road we mean to take when we again mount our steed.
I have thus far then (to use a less metaphorical language) proceeded with my hero's story, and before I continue it any further, I am determined to hear what the world says of it; and whether they are pleased with the novel character which I have presented to them.
If the publick approve, I perhaps shall in a short time finish the story which I sketched out in the argument.—In the mean time as Alexander thought Achilles highly honoured in having Homer for his poet, who has made his name immortal; so will it be thought that the hero of this tale ought to hold himself obliged in no
In the mean time, as the faithful historian of his life, I expect to receive from him no small thanks for my labour.—Here then, good reader, we will conclude the first part of this poem .
As to the title of it whether it be heroic, or not, this matter I shall leave to be settled by the learned critics of this and succeeding ages. Dryden objected to Milton's Poem being heroic, because the Devil, as he said, was his hero . If such an objection be started against mine, I cannot help it. I would only beg leave to suggest, that if a poem contains all that Aristotle (who is always chair-man on these occasions) thinks necessary to constitute an Epic, the person of the hero can be of no consequence at all.
But as I promised to present my readers with a pretty little ode upon another subject, I will here give it them.
If any surly critics should say, that I have shewed no tenderness for my hero, I reply, that I have intended, (contrary indeed to the practice of all other poets) not to deal in fiction, but to keep to real life. I was therefore obliged on this account to paint and describe according to the circumstances which were presented to me. Had I been left to my own discretion, I should, most probably, have drawn a veil over some things:—but then I should not have been a faithful historian: a character I wish much to preserve.—And in the next place the following ode will, I hope, fully prove the tenderness of my feelings, whenever I have a subject on which I can display them.
Permit it to be ushered into your presence by the following introduction.
INTRODUCTION.
[Should any dare to say, that I am cruel]
Hard-hearted, an unfeeling creature,
And treat a man as though he lived on gruel,
And had not a fine house above his head,
And slept on straw instead of a fine bed;
And of the human kind had not a single feature.
To make small people great, who have nought else to shew.
But put a peacock's feathers on a crow,
And it may startle such as don't his worship know.
As with your mighty leave I soon will prove.
Pray read this little ode, and see if I
Am not possess'd of all the warmth of love.
ODE TO ELIZA.
Et sedeo duras janitor ante fores.”
Tibull. Eleg. Lib. 1. El. 1. V. 55.
Et dominam tenero continuisse sinu:
Aut, gelidas hibernus aquas cum fuderit auster,
Securum somnos imbre juvante sequi!
Hoc mihi contingat.—”
Ibid. V. 41.
Das mî pocula, das dapes Deorum.”
Buchanan.
That face with every charm o'erspread;—
That look!—Eliza, these declare
You was not born to die a maid.
Come while the graces round you play;
Indulge in love!—O! seize the time;
Beauty is frail, and will decay .
And on that throbbing bosom lie!
Could I, encircl'd in those arms,
In pleasure and in rapture die!
And wandering fancy often play;
Oft-times I paint thee soft and kind:—
But these like phantoms pass away.
And make these visions prove but true:
Come let me taste substantial joys;—
Such joys as flow from love and you.
And why that face such power display!
Such charms, resistless! why arise,
And thousand graces round you play!
That heaving tempt the daring hand;
Ambrosial lips which love invite;—
Ah! these, Eliza, who can stand!
Far from the reach of mortal sight;
Where eyes profane must never pry,
Nor view those regions of delight!
Were I such treasures but enjoying!—
To clasp thee to this eager breast;
Soft, tender, yielding, melting,—dying!
Indulge in sweets of heavenly love!
I'd envy not your bliss and joy,
Nor want your Venus from above.
While you, dear girl, prov'd true and kind;
And, oh! could aught that bliss impair,
While thought meets thought, and mind unites with mind!
With equal warmth the kiss return'd:—
Sappho with equal fire ne'er burn'd!
Dull prudes will chide your amorous strains;
Whose souls, unchear'd by passion's ray,
Are held in winter's icy chains.
Forgive the verse inspir'd by you.
My muse would never give offence:—
Eliza, dearest girl, adieu.
Chrysostom. De Sacerdotio, lib. vi. p. 250, ed. Hughes
Jam veniet tenebris mors adoperta caput.
Jam subrepet iners ætas, nec amare decebit,
Dicere nec cano blanditias capite.
Nunc levis est tractanda Venus, dum frangere postes
Non pudet, et rixas inseruisse juvat.”
Tibull: Eleg: Lib 1. El. 1. V. 83.
Dat rores animæ suave-olentes.”
Johannes Secundus Nicolaius. Basium iv.
Et diduco avidus tuæ, puella,
Flosculos animæ suave-olentes;
Unus tum videor mihi deorum,
Seu quid altiùs est beautiùsve.”
Bonefonii Basium xvi.
The reader may be assured that when Pasquin writes again, he will have a more important hero, and more interesting matter to write upon.—He is, in real truth, asham'd of his present subject, and wishes that he had not condescended even in this manner to notice it.—He does not know however that he ought to be ashamed of it. A poet ought to be a moralist. To instruct mankind was the first design of poetry.—According as the characters are, so must the instruction be adapted. To solid minds, serious arguments is proper to be offered. To shallow minds ridicule; thus true is the assertion of Horace,
Fortiús et meliùs magnas plerumque secat res.”
Hor. Lib. 1. Sat. x. V. 14.
| A serio-comic and admonitory epistle, addressed to a certain priest | |